By trade, Londoner Paul Byers helps people buy and sell homes in the city’s tight property market.

But for much of the week, you can find him, microphone in hand, entertaining residents and staff at local senior living communities, belting out well-known songs from yesteryear.

It’s something the longtime real estate agent has been doing for more than 20 years, he says, driven by his love of singing, karaoke and his passion for the local aging community.

“I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. My mother was a really good singer. I actually got into karaoke as soon as it came out in Canada” in the 1980s, he said.

After playing local bars and venues for years, Byers first sang at the city-owned Dearness Home at the suggestion of a friend who worked there. Today, he says he performs at senior homes four to five times a week, often at Dearness.

“I like to look at people when I sing songs that mean something to them, for whatever reason…I just like to see the emotion it stirs up in them.”

For Byers, originally from Scotland, it took on a more personal note over the past two years, watching his mother succumb to the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

“She’s at the stage where your cognition is very, very low and she’s unresponsive,” he said. “But I know when I sing songs, either we sang together or songs that she knew really well growing up, there’s something there. She’ll give me a smile.”

Last Wednesday, Byers crooned to residents at the Chartwell Riverside retirement community as staff members handed out glasses of wine, ginger ale and snacks for “Wednesday Happy Hour.” He says he performs at home once or twice a month.

“I find music to be therapeutic for anyone suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia,” said Sylvia Turner, a Chartwell Riverside resident who helps organize entertainment for other residents, including a Saturday movie night. evening.

“Music seems to bring people together, like Paul said about his mother, right? My husband did. He loved hearing music.”

For Ruth Thornton, who has lived in Chartwell Riverside for two years and worked for the CBC in the mid-1940s, entertainment helps liven things up.

“You’re pretty much confined to barracks, as they say,” she says. “I think they do a great job. They are all very professional and it’s definitely something different than listening to a radio or television.”

Several dozen residents listened to Byers perform covers of Hank Cochran, Everly Brothers, The Drifters and Tom Jones, a notable favorite.

“The green, green grass of the house is important,” Byers said. “There’s a yodeling song I like to do by a gentleman called Frank Ifield, which goes down really well. Lots of Elvis…I get a lot of requests for John Denver, Country Roads, and that’s the ‘one of my favorites to sing too.’

Paul is a resident favorite, said Melissa Morrison, lifestyle programs manager at Chartwell Riverside.

“It’s very therapeutic. It takes them back to their childhood, to their own marriage,” she said. The programming is also enriching for the staff.

“We spend more time here than at home. Just being able to come together in a safe common space and enjoy the music and the emotions is the best part of my job.”

Byers said he hopes to take his talent to the next level and apply to compete on Canada’s Got Talent.